by Raven Snow
“Oh, my goodness,” said Trish, unable to keep her emotions to herself any longer. “Are you all right, Willard?” The planchette moved off and onto the ‘Yes’ again. Trish looked up apologetically as it did.
“It’s fine,” said Rowen. “You can speak to him.” It wasn’t anything special that she was doing. She was just asking questions and getting answers. Trish knew the questions she wanted answers to better than Rowen did.
“I miss you so much, Willard,” said Trish. Her eyes were wet with tears, but she was smiling.
Even though she hadn’t asked a question, the planchette moved. I-M-I-S-S-Y-O-U-T-O-O “I miss you too,” Eric said aloud.
Trish’s smile widened. She had to let go of the planchette for a moment to wipe at her eyes. “Are you all right where you are now? What’s it like?” asked Trish. That seemed like a pretty obvious question to ask, even if it was a very multi-faceted one. Rowen doubted he would answer it to her satisfaction.
“Hard to explain,” Eric read.
“Spirits don’t normally stay long,” Rowen said before Trish could try and get more specific with her phrasing. “We can keep talking to him for as long as he’s able, but none of us can know how long that will be.” Rowen didn’t have this sort of thing down to a science. She didn’t know why he couldn’t speak for long, only that it seemed to take a lot of energy for spirits to communicate. “If you have any questions you absolutely want the answers to, I would ask those first.”
Trish nodded. “Willard,” she began. “They think you were murdered.”
Eric frowned down at the board as it responded. “I was,” he read.
Trish didn’t look surprised. Rowen wasn’t terribly surprised herself, but his response did raise some questions for her. “How do you know?” she asked. She looked up as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “Sorry,” she added to Trish. She hadn’t meant to just cut in with a question like that.
“It’s fine,” Trish said quickly, looking interested in the response spelling itself out already.
“Makes sense,” Eric read, while the planchette was still spelling out more. “Fought with Anita. She was angry.”
Trish’s expression darkened. “What did you fight over?” she asked, her tone solemn.
“The house,” read Eric.
“Were you going to give it to her?” asked Rowen, cutting in again. She didn’t bother apologizing to Trish this time. She was too focused on the facts.
The lights flickered. The room began to grow colder. “Wanted money for it,” Eric read.
“So you think she murdered you for that?” Rowen shook her head. None of this sounded quite right to her. She rephrased the question before he could answer. “She was in your Will. Why was she in your Will?”
For a moment, the planchette didn’t move. Rowen was afraid that Willard had moved on and she had stolen Trish’s last few questions. Finally, it began to move across the board. “Ask Anita.”
Rowen looked up at Trish. She didn’t want to steal any more time from her. Trish didn’t look too concerned with that. Her gaze had gone distant, and there was a frown on her face. It was an awfully strange time to just zone out. “Trish?” Rowen prompted.
The planchette began to move again, even though no one had asked a question. “Bye for now,” read Eric.
“Wait,” said Trish, her eyes going wide as she realized the time for questions had come and gone. “Tell me more about what it’s like where you are. Is there a bright light?”
The planchette didn’t move again. It seemed Willard had gone. “He said, ‘bye, for now,’” Rowen offered. “It sounds like we might be able to speak with him again.” She hoped Trish wasn’t mad at her for taking up some of that precious question-asking time.
Trish didn’t look to be mad. She took a deep breath and managed a smile. “This means a lot to me. I can’t say how much this means to me.”
“You can keep the board,” said Rowen. “You don’t necessarily need us. If you have a friend willing to do this with you, you should be able to contact him yourself. Maybe give me a call beforehand so I can okay your setup. It’s always good to be cautious with things like this. Stay skeptical. There’s always a chance that you’re not talking to the person you think you’re talking to.”
“That was Willard,” said Trish, sounding sure of herself. Rowen wasn’t nearly as sure, but she wasn’t going to argue with her. “And don’t worry, I won’t be asking you to come down here again. I might head to Lainswich soon, actually.”
“Really?” Rowen was surprised to hear that. She was also just a bit worried. “What business do you have in Lainswich?” she asked.
“My sister is in Lainswich. I have a feeling I need to have a word with her.”
Chapter Eight
It was too late to do much by the time Rowen and Eric got back home. The conversation she had had with Trish wasn’t the most pressing of matters, but it did seem like something she should pass on to someone so right after breakfast the next day, she called Ben.
“Hello?” Ben answered with a yawn. There was a degree of wariness in his voice, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to be hearing from her so early. He probably thought something was wrong. “What’s up?” he asked.
“So, I paid a visit to your aunt yesterday,” Rowen began.
“Yeah. Rose mentioned you were heading that way to interview Aunt Trish and some of Willard’s coworkers for the article. I appreciate you going through the trouble of writing something like that, by the way. I’m sure he would have really appreciated it too.”
“It’s no trouble,” Rowen assured him. “You know how slow work has been. Having something to do is a nice change of pace…Not that any of us are glad he died or anything, just—”
“I know what you mean,” Ben said quickly, cutting her off. “How is Trish? Is she all right?”
“That’s what I’m calling about, actually,” Rowen said. “She seems to be taking the death well, but she said some things that you probably need to hear.”
“What?” he asked, not sounding completely certain that he wanted to hear any of it.
“Well, she blames your mother,” said Rowen. She supposed she would lead with that.
“That’s not really a surprise,” Ben said. Even so, he sounded disappointed to hear it. “I can’t remember a time when those two got along. What’s she saying?”
Rowen hesitated. She wasn’t quite sure what the best way to word what had happened would be. She decided to just come right out with it. “She had me contact Willard, Ben.”
Ben was silent for several long seconds. “Like, with a séance?” he asked.
“Like, with a Ouija board,” she said.
Ben groaned. “Well, did he say anything?”
“You can’t really blame her for wanting to contact her brother,” Rowen told him, feeling obligated to defend Trish. “But, yeah, he did. It was either him or someone claiming to be him. It’s really hard to say. I told that to your aunt, but she still seems convinced it was him.”
“And what did the spirit that claimed to be him say?” Ben asked with another groan.
“He said your mother was the one who had murdered him,” Rowen said, coming right out with the truth again. Before Ben could respond, she pressed on with an explanation. “Apparently they were fighting over ownership of the house. He left it to her in the Will for some reason and, well, he seems to think that she murdered him to get it. Of course, even if she had, I can’t imagine he would have had any way of knowing. I mean, if he’d seen it coming, he wouldn’t have been poisoned in the first place, right?”
“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation,” Ben muttered. “What am I supposed to do about any of this?”
That didn’t really sound like Ben. and she wasn’t quite sure what to say. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just figured I should tell you.”
“In case what? In case the ghost of my uncle comes forward and testifies? Accuses my mother? What? Are they going to i
ntroduce the Ouija board into the courtroom?”
Rowen frowned. Now he was just getting mean. “I don’t care what you do with this, Ben. I’m just trying to help. I wanted to warn you that she may be coming down there some time in the near future to confront your mother. I figured you should know that, but maybe I should have just kept it to myself.”
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry,” Ben said. “I’ve just been so on edge lately. This whole thing has me in knots. It’s not like it’s your fault. It would have been awfully mean not to help her at least try and speak to my uncle again. Thanks for telling me. I’ll…I’ll try to give her a call myself, I guess.”
“Have you two ever been close?”
“Honestly?” he asked “Not really. I remember them taking me out to a movie or two, I think. I remember seeing them on the holidays sometimes. They’d send my brothers and sisters and I five dollars in a Christmas card. That sort of thing. Beyond that, we didn’t see much of each other. Mostly, I just grew up listening to my mother complain about them.”
“Your mother complains about a lot of people,” Rowen said before she could help herself.
“You’ve got that right,” Ben conceded. “Well, thanks for the call, Rowen. I’m sorry if I came off as a jerk.”
“It’s fine,” she assured him. “How are things going with the case, by the way? I’ve been getting my updates from Rose, but she’s been elusive. I think she’s afraid I’m going to publish every personal little detail.”
“You might,” Ben told her. He continued anyway, though. He must have trusted her not to be too heartless with the information he was about to tell her. “Honestly, the police do seem to be really looking into my mother. I guess I get it. I mean, she’s the only one with any kind of motive. Granted, there isn’t a whole lot to it. Any case they could build against her is flimsy, if you ask me.”
“Is Julia Martinez reporting that?” Rowen asked.
“That they like my mother for this? She sure is. Didn’t you know that already?”
“I had a hunch, but I don’t look at everything she puts out. I don’t like her way of doing things, and I’d rather not get into the game of trying to one-up her with every story we put out. I take it your mom’s not so taken with her anymore, huh?”
“She’s pretty unhappy,” said Ben, his tone of voice suggesting that “unhappy” was putting things mildly. “She’s had some problems with people gathering outside the house.”
“Really?” She was genuinely surprised to hear that. She was used to people turning on Greensmiths, but someone like Mrs. Williamson? This news should have given her a touch of cruel satisfaction. Instead, she just found herself disappointed in Lainswich for jumping to conclusions. “What are they doing?”
“Oh, you know,” said Ben—because, being a Greensmith, Rowen did. “They’re trying to get a look at her mostly. Some are saying unkind things. Honestly, I’m afraid it’s my fault. It started off as just a few people. I lost my temper and cleared them off. Of course that got people saying that I was using my position as chief of police to shield her from justice. The next time I looked out there, there were twice as many people.”
“I’m sorry, Ben.” Rowen genuinely was. She knew what it was like to feel helpless while trying to protect your family. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I doubt it,” he said. “We clear them out, but they keep coming back. In town they’re even worse. People just stare.”
“I could do an interview with her,” she suggested. “Maybe an article in the Lainswich Inquirer would chill people out a little bit, take the edge off, at least.”
Ben laughed at that. He must have thought she was joking. “I’m not kidding,” said Rowen. “I really think that could help.”
“Seriously?” Ben sounded more like he thought she might be going insane. “Rowen, my mother hates you. I thought you knew.”
“I know,” she said. “I also know a thing or two about dealing with hate from this town.”
“You don’t think that my mother associating with you might compound that hate?” he asked before quickly adding, “No offense.”
“None taken,” said Rowen, even though a little had been. “Look, your family is already associated with mine because of you. You’re dating Rose, and everyone knows it. Unless you’re willing to break up with her, that’s not going to change any time soon…You aren’t planning on breaking up with her any time soon, are you?”
“Of course not,” Ben said, immediately. He was quiet for just a moment. “She didn’t say anything to you about me, did she?”
Rose had, but Rowen wasn’t going to mention that. “No,” she said instead. “Why?”
“I don’t know why I even asked,” he grumbled. “It’s not like you would tell me if she had…It’s just that she’s been acting a little distant. I’m not sure what to make of it. It seems like she’s mad about something, but she doesn’t want to tell me what it is.”
“It’s just bad timing for a heart to heart,” Rowen said. “You’ve got reason to be on edge right now. If she had a problem with you, she wouldn’t say anything about it. Now isn’t really the time to bring up that sort of thing.”
That didn’t seem to comfort Ben any. If anything, he seemed to be more concerned than ever. “Will you talk to her for me?” he asked.
“About what?” asked Rowen, trying to play dumb even though she had pretty thoroughly shown her hand just now.
“Whatever’s wrong,” said Ben. “Tell her she can talk to me. It’s worse not knowing.” He took a deep breath and changed the subject back to equally pressing matters. “I’ll talk to my mom, but I can’t promise she’ll go along with your idea.”
“Thanks,” said Rowen. “I’ll talk to you later then.” She hung up the phone and turned her gaze to Eric. He was standing on the other side of the kitchen bar, sipping at his mug of coffee. “What?” she asked, realizing he was staring intently at her.
Eric shook his head. “It’s none of my business,” he said. “But are you seriously trying to help out Mrs. Williamson?”
“What?” Rowen asked, failing to see what was so wrong about that. “She doesn’t deserve to be harassed by the town. No one deserves that…Though an interview with her will make for a pretty good story.”
“There it is,” said Eric, taking another sip of his coffee.
“What?” Rowen didn’t see the problem. “I get to help out Ben and Rose and steal some of the wind from Julia Martinez. It’s a win-win.”
Ben didn’t call Rowen back that day. It was Rose who passed on the news. “Ben says his mother agreed to the interview,” she said, coming into Rowen’s office with her cell phone in her hand. “He also says that she says it has to happen sometime between lunch and dinner.”
Rowen’s relief at having the go ahead for the interview didn’t last long. She looked at the clock. “So…now?” she asked. It was already a little past three.
“That’s what I’d think,” said Rose with a nod. “Ben went ahead and apologized for her.”
“Like that counts.” Rowen got up and put her computer to sleep. The article she was working on would have to wait. “And I bet she wonders why people don’t like her.”
“I don’t think she wonders too much about our opinions,” said Rose, following Rowen from the office.
“Think you can help Willow pick out a picture to go with the article on the ice cream place?” she asked. “I was supposed to give her the okay on one, but it seems like I have to hurry on out of here.”
“I would,” said Rose, “but I thought I’d go with you. Ben asked if I would.”
“Did he?” Rowen was surprised to hear that. Rose was no fan of Ben’s mother. It stood to reason that she didn’t want to go there and conduct an interview with someone who actively disliked her. “What? Did you mention you wanted to go?” Rowen could believe that maybe she had volunteered. Maybe she was hoping there was some way to get on Mrs. Williamson’s good side. Ass
uming there was even a good side of that woman to be on.
“No,” Rose said, plainly. “He volunteered me for it.”
Rowen cringed. “And he wonders why it seems like you’re frustrated with him?”
“He what now?” asked Rose, following Rowen to the car.
Rowen didn’t stop to tell Willow and Peony where they were going. If they didn’t know they were alone in the office, there was a better chance that they would actually get some work done. “He asked me to talk to you,” said Rowen. She saw no point in keeping any of that from her cousin. “He’s worried you’re mad at him…Which you sort of are.”
“You told him that?” asked Rose, sounding suddenly nervous.
